Lisa's Laws: Memo to self: Don't bring guns into a Starbucks

I go to Starbucks once in a while. I sometimes bring a newspaper or my iPad, maybe a notepad and pen so I can make to-do lists while I drink a double shot tall latte.

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By Lisa Ramirez

recordonline.com

By Lisa Ramirez

Posted Sep. 22, 2013 at 2:00 AM

By Lisa Ramirez

Posted Sep. 22, 2013 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

I go to Starbucks once in a while. I sometimes bring a newspaper or my iPad, maybe a notepad and pen so I can make to-do lists while I drink a double shot tall latte.

I've thought about trying something fancier, like a Macchiato, but I'm not precisely sure how to pronounce it or, in fact, what it is, and the Starbucks at the Orange Plaza in the Town of Wallkill is always kinda busy and I don't want to hold up the line with a bunch of questions. I should really put "Google 'Macchiato'" on my next to-do list.

Anyway, I've watched people as they come and go while I sit there, and I've seen them carry in laptops and briefcases, art supplies and MP3 players, babies and once in a while a woman will be carrying one of those pocketbooks with an itty-bitty little doggie in it. What I have never seen, not at the Orange Plaza locale or any of the other Starbucks I've visited, is anyone ever walk in with a gun.

Apparently, though, unarmed Starbuck customers is a regional thing, kinda like how we pronounce "Accord" the Ulster County hamlet a bit differently than "Accord" the Honda, or how, here in Sullivan County, the opening day of deer season is a holiday. But while we're just sitting at Starbucks with nothing but a Kindle and a pumpkin scone, other folks have been bringing their guns to Starbucks, like, all the time. In fact, so many people have been bringing so many guns that the company has asked them to please stop.

I, for one, was a bit surprised that a CEO would have to ask café customers to forgo their firearms. But going to Starbucks with a gun on your hip is a bit of a thing at some places, apparently because Starbucks has always let customers in the 44 states that allow legal gun owners to carry weapons openly to do so, even while other businesses ban guns. Starbucks in six other states — including New York — have not.

But somewhere along the line gun advocates took this to mean that Starbucks was "pro gun," even staging events. In turn, anti-gun people were busy organizing boycotts. In his open letter announcing the new policy last week, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz explained:

"Recently, however, we've seen the 'open carry' debate become increasingly uncivil and, in some cases, even threatening. Pro-gun activists have used our stores as a political stage for media events misleadingly called 'Starbucks Appreciation Days' that disingenuously portray Starbucks as a champion of 'open carry.' To be clear: We do not want these events in our stores. Some anti-gun activists have also played a role in ratcheting up the rhetoric and friction, including soliciting and confronting our customers and partners. For these reasons, today we are respectfully requesting that customers no longer bring firearms into our stores or outdoor seating areas — even in states where 'open carry' is permitted — unless they are authorized law enforcement personnel."

And then were two times where guns carried in women's purses have discharged accidentally. It happened in 2011 in Wyoming — the bullet flew past all the other customers, but she did manage to shoot a chair and the wall — then again in 2013 in St. Petersburg, Fla., when a woman dropped her purse and the handgun inside fired, shooting her best friend in the leg.

If I were in charge of Starbucks, I think "ask people to leave guns at home" would have made my to-do list after Wyoming.